The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Echinacea plant, botanically known as Echinacea purpurea×Echinacea paradoxa and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Gemini Pink’.
The new Echinacea is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Dahlonega, Ga. The objective of the breeding program is to create new Echinacea plants with double whorls of ray florets and unique and attractive ray and disc floret coloration.
The new Echinacea plant originated from an open-pollination during the summer of 2007 of an unnamed selection of Echinacea purpurea×Echinacea paradoxa which had double whorls of ray florets, not patented, as the female, or seed parent with an unknown selection of Echinacea purpurea×Echinacea paradoxa as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Echinacea plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant from within the progeny of the stated open-pollination grown in a controlled outdoor nursery environment in Dahlonega, Ga. in June, 2008.
Asexual reproduction of the new Echinacea plant by tissue culture in a controlled environment in Alpharetta, Ga. since 2008 has shown that the unique features of this new Echinacea plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.